The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) continues to advance land tenure security for qualified beneficiaries by distributing 1,003 land patents in Ilocos Region, giving recipients stronger legal recognition of their ownership and use of the land they have long relied on.

During a ceremonial awarding held at SM City Laoag on Thursday afternoon, 56-year-old Myla Catherine Irorita-Osdon, a new residential land patent holder in Barangay Bonifacio Poblacion, Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, told the Philippine News Agency that she can finally call herself a landowner.

“Thank you to the DENR for being so accommodating in the processing of our titles,” she said in an interview.

Osdon, along with her mother and younger sister, are among the first excited beneficiaries from the region to arrive at the mall and register on the guest list for land patent distribution from the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Pangasinan.

For families who have occupied and cultivated parcels of land for years, receiving a land patent can be a life-changing milestone, according to Nelia Irorita, who is also a patent holder.

For 97-year-old Teofilo Beñas, a resident of Poblacion 2, Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte, receiving a hard copy of a new land patent with his name and his late wife Andrea in it is comforting and puts him at peace.

“The government is very good. I am happy I got this,” he said while smiling as he showed a copy of the land title for 968 square meters in Susugaen, Pasuquin town.

During the ceremonial distribution, DENR Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna said a land title means “security, dignity and peace of mind.”

He congratulated the new patent holders, as they can now invest in productive improvements, maintain their properties and participate more confidently in local economic activities. (PNA)